2003 MAY 30 #150
Unknown - Carry On My Wayward Son
A girl. A microphone. A Kansas song.
I am speechless over this recording. This came to me courtesy of a cassette mix I received from a friend in Iowa back in 1998 when I was doing tape trades. I have since lost contact with my friend and kept this cassette in a shoebox in my closet. When Otis asked me to curate a day or two I decided to blow the dust off this song and submit it.
For years I have always pondered the origins of this tape. It wasn"t until my involvement in this project that the answer to my question was answered. According to different sources this tape was rescued by R. Stevie Moore from a tape bin in the back of a Sam Goody. Several people have also contacted me that they too have a copy of this song and were wondering the origins of this. Well let"s not keep a good thing to ourselves, let us share this great musical find with the rest of the world!
- Jen
TT-1:54 / 2.2MB / 160kbps 44.1khz
Jim Allenspach writes:
This version of "Carry On My Wayward Son"
has been played on WFMU a few times, and was included
on the show "The Audio Kitchen". The singer's
name is Mary May, and the tape as played on WFMU starts
off with her interviewing members of her family (who
say her name a couple times) with the strange stereo
separation that distinguishes the singing selection
that was posted on 365 Days. (The host of the show,
The Professor, indicates that this recording is one
of the items that gave him the idea for his great WFMU
show.) If you go to the Audio
Kitchen archived shows at you'll hear a mono version
of the same song starting the August 2, 2000 show. And
if you go to the very end of the August 29, 2001 show
(about 56 minutes into the one-hour program), you'll
hear a stereo copy of the interview portion of the tape,
before Mary May starts singing. So if anyone's wondering
whether or not they are the singer, perhaps the interview
portion will jog their memory.
N.N. writes:
has anyone else contacted you saying "that might
be me!" vis a vis this song? i have this weird feeling
that this actually *might* be me singing on this song.
i was constantly making tapes of myself singing with records
(as well as doing fake radio shows) through most of the
70s, and i have a vague recollection of doing this song.
i had leftoverture. i played it a lot. i would have been
12 or 13 at the time. and it actually does sound somewhat
like me. my husband has heard some of my other childhood
tapes and agrees that there is a striking similarity.
the only thing that takes me aback is just how gut-wrenchingly
bad and off-key the singing is at times. but then again,
i never figured anyone would hear the tapes i made but
me, and i usually hammed it up with a devil-may-care attitude.
i don't know if the geography is right, though. i lived
in the baltimore-washington corridor, and isn't r. stevie
moore from arizona or something? we did have a sam goody
in the mall, though. (but didn't everyone?)
